The eLife Story Continues — Evasions Seem the Best We Can Expect
The continued silence from major funders involved in the eLife-PubMed Central scandal is creating a noise all its own.
Taking Issue — A New York Times Editorial Mishandles the OSTP Memorandum
The OSTP memorandum is a reasonable step forward for everyone. However, a NYT editorial provides misleading interpretations of its scope and design.
Is It a Tablet? Is It a Laptop? Digging Into the Microsoft Surface RT
Microsoft’s Surface RT marks the software stalwart’s entry into the hardware and tablet market. Too bad it’s late and awkward.
Tesla, Journalism, and the Limits of Data — A Lesson in Context and Interpretation
An electric car’s data versus a journalist’s experiences — and neither proves sufficient for the task of telling us exactly what happened.
Confusions in the OSTP OA Policy Memo — Three Monsters and a Gorilla
The OSTP public access memorandum provides flexibility across many US federal agencies. The possible complexities combined with current budget realities mean there is much to tame and little to spend doing it.
Open Access 2.0: Access to Scholarly Publications Moves to a New Phase
A reprint of an essay from 2008, which attempts to describe the evolution of open access publishing, Written before the astounding success of PLoS ONE, it outlines the link between open access publishing and the still-persistent traditional model.
It's FASTR — Is It Bettr?
Another bill designed to make taxpayer-funded research available raises old questions and familiar divides. Does it have a chance of generating a productive decision?
Licensing Controversy — Balancing Author Rights with Societal Good
The CC-BY license is assumed to be an open access standard, but the situation is complex — for funders, authors, universities, and publishers of all types. Perhaps a less dogmatic approach would serve all parties better.
SSP Launches Sharp, Redesigned Web Site
The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) launches its new Web site — a sharp, usable, and useful update that makes it easier to take advantage of SSP resources.
Yesterday's Outage in the Kitchen
Zap — unexpected site maintenance knocked us our for a few hours. No worries — it was just an upgrade that took longer than we thought it would.
Something's Rotten in Bethesda, Indeed — How PubMed Central Came to Help Launch and Initially Publish eLife
Circumstantial evidence has become direct evidence — that eLife requested publication in PMC; that PMC collaborated with eLife; that PMC sought to conceal its preferential treatment; and that systems and processes at the NLM regarding PMC inclusion are unclear and open to abuse and misuse.
An Interview With Keith Collier, Co-Founder of Rubriq
With the creation of Rubriq, co-founders Shashi Mudunuri and Keith Collier have broken new ground. Rubriq is an attempt to provide peer-review independent from journals.
The Earth at Night — And a Mysterious Patch of Light Appears Suddenly in North Dakota
A new composite of nighttime satellite images reveals the Earth at night — and a remarkable boom town in North Dakota.
The Shadow of the MOOC Grows Longer
Will massive open online courses (MOOCs) disrupt higher education? With recent announcements, the potential seems to be growing.
Why the Moon Landing Could Not Have Been a Hoax — It Wasn't Technologically Possible to Fake It
A great analysis of why it was technologically impossible to fake the 1969 moon landing.